4 And he commanded them, saying, a“Speak thus to my lord Esau, ‘Thus your servant Jacob says: “I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there until now.
5aI have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that bI may find favor in your sight.” ’ ”
6 Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and ahe also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
7 So Jacob was greatly afraid and adistressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies.
8 And he said, “If Esau comes to the one company and1 attacks it, then the other company which is left will escape.”
9aThen Jacob said, b“O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lordcwho said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’:
10 I am not worthy of the least of all the amercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with bmy staff, and now I have become two companies.
11aDeliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and1 attack me andbthe mother with the children.
12 For aYou said, ‘I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the bsand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ”
13 So he lodged there that same night, and took what1 came to his hand as aa present for Esau his brother:
Esau had built up a considerable following, amassing an army of 400 men (Genesis 32:6; 33:1). Obviously, over such a short time, these men could not all have been Esau's direct descendants or even all his servants. We can deduce their identity by assembling the clues found in Genesis 36:2, 8, 20, and 24. Evidently, Esau's wife "Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite" (verses 1, 24) was also a Horite, who were the people who "inhabited the land" of Seir (verse 20). When Esau migrated to Seir (verse 8), he essentially went to live with his Horite wife's family, aristocrats of the area (verses 29-30). Many of the 400 men, then, were probably Horites, relatives of Esau's wife.
